Israel Stems Suicide Bombings, but at a Cost

By GREG MYRE

Published: April 5, 2003

NABLUS, West Bank, April 4—
Amid a wave of suicide bombings last summer, Ali Ajouri, a young militia leader, dispatched a pair of young attackers who blew themselves up in a rundown Tel Aviv neighborhood in July, killing two Israelis and three foreign workers.

The attack was similar to dozens of others that preceded it. But the Israeli response -- singling out Mr. Ajouri, his family and his city -- was startlingly different. It provided one of the first examples of the relentless, uncompromising approach that the Israeli government says has significantly reduced suicide bombings since they reached a frenzied peak a year ago.

At 3 a.m., two days after the Tel Aviv bombing, Israeli forces were at the front door of the Ajouri family's three-story cinderblock home in the Askar refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. The more than 20 members of the extended family were ordered outside in their pajamas, and troops brought the house crashing down with explosives.

While Mr. Ajouri remained in hiding, Israel's crackdown continued with the arrests of three of his siblings and their 66-year-old father on the suspicion of complicity in the attack.

The father and one brother were released. But a military court convicted one of Mr. Ajouri's sisters, Intisar, 35, of sewing bomb belts for the attackers and ruled that a brother, Kifah, 30, also assisted. Both were deported to the Gaza Strip, where they are living today in the basement of a Red Cross office.

Three weeks after the Tel Aviv bombing, the Israelis located Mr. Ajouri, 23, as he and a fellow militant in the Aksa Martyrs Brigades moved one night between two villages north of Nablus. Attack helicopters and armored vehicles unleashed blasts of gunfire, killing them both.

Israel's tactics have drawn criticism from the Palestinians, human rights groups and even the United States, Israel's closest ally. The measures -- house demolitions, mass arrests, nightly raids, curfews, stringent travel restrictions and the construction of a fence separating Israel from the West Bank -- have raised questions about what is a legitimate response to suicide bombing.

But for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government and the country's security forces, the bottom line is that the measures have been increasingly effective against Palestinian militants.

In the 30 months of the current conflict, Palestinian bombers unleashed almost 90 attacks. But in the past four months, they have struck in Israel just three times.

''The methods we've used have proved themselves successful over the past year,'' said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman. ''We're still seeing dozens of attempted attacks each month, but we've found ways to stop almost all of them.''

The Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, has condemned suicide bombings. But Israel says his security forces have never made a serious effort to crack down on the three groups responsible for almost all of the attacks -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

Palestinians have criticized Israel's tactics as unduly harsh and sweeping, complaining at the injustice of taking aim at all of Palestinian society, not just militants.

But the militants themselves concede that the measures have made it harder to stage attacks. ''We still have the men and the weapons,'' said a leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas, who asked to be identified as Abu Ahmed. ''The problem now is getting them to the target.''

During the most intensive wave of attacks, in March 2002, Israel seemed overwhelmed by the onslaught. The 16 suicide bombings that month killed 80 Israelis, prompting Mr. Sharon to send the army charging into Palestinian cities throughout the West Bank.

The troops withdrew six weeks later, but as bombings increased the soldiers returned in June and have remained. The net result is that bombings are down, and Palestinians frustrations are up.

The latest arrest sweep came in response to a suicide bombing last Sunday in the coastal town of Netanya, which killed the attacker and wounded more than 30 Israelis at a cafe.

On Wednesday, Israeli troops entered a refugee camp in Tulkarm, a West Bank town not far from Netanya, and ordered all boys and men from age 15 to 45 into the center of the camp.

At least 1,000 Palestinians were rounded up, with almost all sent in trucks to another refugee camp and told not to return home for three days, as Israeli forces continued searching. Many slept in olive groves.

Israel said today that it had captured the man it was seeking, Anwar Aliyan, the local leader of Islamic Jihad, the group that carried out last Sunday's attack. The troops then pulled out and the male residents returned.

Back in Nablus, Mr. Ajouri's father, Muhammad, said he and his family were not aware of his son's role in Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a band of fighters loosely linked to Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement.

Mr. Ajouri left the family home -- abandoning his new bride -- and had no contact with his family in his final four months, according to his father.

Muhammad Ajouri said he did not support his son's actions, though a picture of Mr. Ajouri, clutching an AK-47 rifle, rests on the windowsill of the family's home, which has been largely rebuilt.

''I often questioned Ali about what he was doing, but he was secretive and wouldn't answer,'' Muhammad Ajouri said. ''He chose his own path.''